


The Life and Times of

by Mornelithe_falconsbane



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine, Naruto
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 05:54:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18867085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mornelithe_falconsbane/pseuds/Mornelithe_falconsbane
Summary: There's power in doing nothing, particularly if you're the one ensuring nothing happens.





	The Life and Times of

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wafflelate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/gifts).



 Akado Manabu knows what you must be thinking. How did a promising young genin like he once was end up as such an unpromising old genin?  With grey hairs and a creaky pair of wrists he'd foolishly wrecked on long days of copying paperwork rather than in battle, and thicker glasses each year--why he'd been third in his academy class, once!

He'd even graduated early--though it had been war, and so had everyone else. Unlike most of his classmates, Akado had a gift for codes which had gotten him assigned to a forgotten pigeon coop for four years, by which time the war was over. All of his classmates had been chuunin, jounin, or dead when Akado came home. Most of them had forgotten about him, and in the ensuing decades, Akado'd had to opportunity to forget them in turn--none lived into their forties. 

No, his not an interesting tale--not even Akado himself would say so. Though if you were to meet him, you would find that he may perhaps, speak of his past quietly and regretfully--but the regret is as of that of a man remembering too late that someone had brought baked goods to the lunchroom. What Akado excels at most, you see, is not regrets--and even if he did, he'd be a man with very few.

His life had been a quiet and calm one through two and a half wars. He’d married, had two lovely children, and every day from eight to four, fought in a silent, bloodless war. The battles were fought using passive aggressive notes, coffee, and a not inconsiderable amount of sadism, but Akado's will of fire had burned for over a decade straight.

His role in life, he often thought, was to minimize Yuuhi Shinku’s influence. To be an insulating buffer layer between those who might be a little less inured to the poison that flowed from Yuuhi’s pores, to soak up every effort that Yuuhi made to ruin things and slow his actions to an excruciating crawl. The fact that it was a pleasure to watch Yuuhi flounder in the paperwork and inefficiencies he'd insisted were necessary...well, it's good to enjoy one's work. 

On fanciful days, Akado occasionally thinks of it as a mission, and if you knew of the attempted paycut debacle that had ended with a fearful murmur of unionization in Yuuhi’s ear, you might even agree. The Genin Corps trudges toward nothing, day after day, and the fact that it improves not at all could be thrown at Yuuhi. The contrasting observation, that the Genin Corps at least grows no _worse_ , however--that responsibility lies on Akado’s desk. Generally speaking, in his filing cabinet of forgotten paperwork.

As you can surely see, Akado is a man of quiet, largely fulfilled ambitions. His greatest disappointment in life, one could say, is the fact that Yuuhi Shinku has not yet simply quit his job in a fit of rage--unpredictably terrible coffee, baked goods that never quite lingered long enough for him to get any, paperwork that never quite ended, murmured office conversations that went silent when he approached--Akado had tried many things. But as much as Yuuhi believed himself better than his position, he was far too much of a coward to try for more.

He clings to his position, even through his rage, like a spider being gently fed grass in the place of grasshoppers. Perhaps that metaphor could use work, but you gather the gist--that Yuuhi is a stain upon the Genin Corps that Akado has been keeping contained for _years..._ until the day Nara Shikako wrecked Yuuhi Shinko’s day, and made Akado’s decade.

Akado had enjoyed Nara Shikako’s meeting with Yuuhi similar to how he would enjoy a good book. Methodically, patiently, and memorizing every word. There was something incredibly satisfying about seeing Yuuhi frustrated to the point of rage by a special jounin barely older than the average genin.

But there was something frightening in how very casually she did it.


End file.
